WILDTIMES September 2016 Edition 56 The monster May-hem In this issue WILDCARE FRIENDS OF FREYCINET WILDCARE faces New board members All the ingredients of mayhem were New WILDCARE group Doctors Rocks present. We had 14 volunteers with a list of jobs filling one A3 size spreadsheet Weed control Furneaux Bass Strait Islands (that part was organised). The teams Below: The view from Cape Tourville. The Nut threatened plants Stanley and vehicles needed to be assigned. Bottom: The job with a million dollar view – Gradually, we sorted ourselves out. painting the decking at the lighthouse. Stuck in the mud Pittwater & Orielton Lagoon Some of us applied render to the Smiths Lagoon threatened plants barbeque bricks. I could not bear to watch as they had not looked at the Yorktown working bee Yorktown DIY video beforehand. Others went up to Cape Tourville and ran out of paint not once, but twice. Seven picnic tables were repaired and painted. But it was not all painting. A team cleared an old Department of Main Roads campsite. They counted over 1,000 cans, huge numbers of broken beer bottles and rubbish that filled several large tip trucks. They left the car bodies! Another team walked the coast from Bicheno to the southern end of Friendly Beaches, removing sea spurge and its cousin, caper spurge. After that, they badly needed a drink, so we all went to the pub for a meal. Thistles and psoralea were removed from several areas, including around the Saffire sewerage pond. Well, they do contribute handsomely to the work of WILDCARE Inc! Most of the infrastructure around the Visitors Centre was then refreshed in preparation for to the centenary celebrations, held 27-29 August. And … PWS put on a great barbie at Honeymoon Bay. Thanks guys. We love you, too. Malcom MacDonald CEO Getting to know the faces behind WILDCARE Sally Simco has recently been Ian Ross is a new WILDCARE board CEO report appointed to the WILDCARE Board of member. Ian grew up in Brisbane, Management. She is a keen bushwalker studied architecture at QUT, and is and kayaker and volunteering with a Registered Building Designer in Friends of the Penguin Cradle Trail WILDCARE suits her interests in learning Tasmania. He worked in Papua New It is a delight to report that another about the natural and cultural history of Guinea from 1977 to 1979, and met marvellous donation of $20 000 remote areas of Tasmania, while making and married his wife in Port Moresby. has been received from The Patricia a contribution to conservation projects. Ian was introduced to bushwalking Dukes Foundation. These funds will Sally, and her husband Michael, first in his teens, was a member of the be utilised in stage 2 activities at took up WILDCARE volunteer positions Brisbane Bushwalkers Club for the Penguin Cradle Trail, involving as Cape Bruny Lighthouse Caretakers 25 years and Public Relations Officer placement of directional signage and Observers in 2013. Since then, for Federation Mountain Rescue for along the trail and improved they have been involved in numerous five years. He first visited Tasmania in safety for walkers. Volunteer WILDCARE projects, including weed 1971 to walk in to Lake Pedder before and Greencorp labour will be eradication on Deal Island, sea spurge it was flooded, climb Frenchmans participating, providing direction removal on the West Coast (SPRATS), Cap, andwalk the Overland Track. and upskilling for those involved. Friends of Freycinet working bees, He developed a passion for nature Congratulations to President Greig and the Orange-bellied parrot Program and landscape photography which has Clarke and his Branch team – your (2014-16). continued to the present day. donor is well pleased with the results Sally is involved with the Ulverstone He has been a WILDCARE member of your hard work in stage 1. Coast Care group and the volunteer for many years, but has been actively Strategic plan track-worker program at Cradle involved with Friends of Tasman Island Since the existing strategic plan Mountain National Park. She is and Friends of Melaleuca in particular expires at the end of this year, the a member of the newly formed in recent years, taking part in working Board of Management has recently WILDCARE Friends of Cradle Mountain bees and using his practical building participated in a strategic planning group. Sally has also been a member skills. Ian believes that volunteering day, please see the article in this of the North West Walking Club for creates social capital that enriches our edtion of Wildtimes. 36 years. Sally completed the Landcare community, and sees WILDCARE as a for Teachers program, designed by significant facilitator of volunteering in Call for contributions to the 2016 the University of Tasmania and was Tasmania, that deserves wide support Annual Report appointed to the WILDCARE Board by both our State Government and the Yes, it’s already that time of year in April 2016. With an interest in Tasmanian public. again! All Branches are now invited ‘Emerging Opportunities’, Sally will be to submit interesting items on their working towards improving WILDCARE activities and projects for inclusion opportunities for all sectors of the in the 2016 Annual Report. Newsy Tasmanian community, in a time of items in Word format, complete with changing conservation issues and photos and captions, are requested technological advancement. on or before the end of September. Please contact me if you have questions or need help. Your co-operation in responding early would be much appreciated and avoid that mad rush at the end of the year. New WILDCARE group at Doctors Rocks WILDCARE FRIENDS OF DOCTORS ROCKS The Doctors Rocks Conservation Highway, to prevent the penguins The philosophy of our group is based Area is located five kilometres east of straying onto the road. But there are around working closely with Parks Wynyard. It is a long, narrow coastal still several kilometres of the reserve to maintain the conservation area reserve approximately seven kilometres bordering on the Bass Highway that particularly as habitat for little penguins. long and features a geological feature is still to be fenced and every season The objectives of this group include: called ‘Doctors Rocks’, which protrudes there are a number of penguins killed into Bass Strait. The coastal strip on the road. • offering tourists and local visitors an is predominantly rocky but there opportunity to see Little penguins The Wynyard Landcare Group have are a couple of small stretches of in their natural habitat during their made an important contribution in sandy beaches. breeding season (September to April) extending this penguin fence and The Doctors Rocks Conservation Area arranging for the existing fence to be • provide non-intrusive viewing is home to a significant number of maintained every couple of years. Most opportunities and interpretive talks little penguins, with large groups on of the Doctors Rocks Conservation according to established practices the immediate western and eastern Area is classified by the Waratah • observe and report on the behaviour sides of Doctors Rocks itself, and Wynyard Council and Tasmania of Little penguins smaller pockets of penguins along the Parks and Wildlife Service (Parks) as whole conservation reserve. The little a ‘No Dog’ zone. However, in recent • report on any changes to the penguins have no difficulty in traversing years, the little penguins have extended physical environment of the area the rocky terrain to get to their nesting their colony zone westwards into a due to natural weather events areas, but significant numbers utilise the ‘Dog off the Leash’ area. • engage in clean-up and general sandy beaches as access points from The concept of operating little penguin maintenance of the area the water to the foreshore nesting area. tours at Doctors Rocks started several • regularly maintain the penguin fence Many shore and sea birds, such as pied years ago, through an initiative involving and install artificial penguin nests, oystercatchers, red-capped plovers, Waratah Wynyard Council, Parks, a local sometimes called ‘concrete igloos’ pacific and sea gulls, and of course, the person with extensive experience with little penguins and shearwaters, are little penguins who had worked with • report to relevant authorities any seen in the reserve. Ringtail possums, Parks, the Wynyard Visitor Information inappropriate behaviour observed in bandicoots, rabbits, water rats, wallabies Centre and local accommodation the conservation area. and tiger snakes also live in the operators. Doctors Rocks has only been conservation area. a conservation area for a couple of years and is managed by Parks; prior to The small community of Doctors that it was a coastal reserve managed Rocks (approximately 20 residences) by local council. can be found at the junction of the East Wynyard Coastal Road and Bass It was decided to amalgamate Highway. A new housing subdivision is all interested parties and create being constructed at the western end. a WILDCARE group called the ‘Friends of Doctors Rocks Penguins.’ Doctors Rocks is well known locally as a very popular fishing spot and it is not unusual to see people fishing off the rocks and from boats during the warmer months for squid, Australian salmon and shark. In recent years, there has also been significant interest amongst locals in gold panning. A steel mesh fence has been constructed along sections of the reserve, where significant numbers of penguins nest within metres of the East Wynyard Coastal Road and Bass Weed control in the Furneaux Islands WILDCARE FRIENDS OF BASS STRAIT ISLANDS Our WILDCARE group have organised Rabbit, Cairn, Isabella and Chalky Islands (Roundup used judiciously and sparingly and run 2 more successful and means we conducted the vital work for ‘cut&paint’ of cut stems) plus fuel enjoyable fortnight-long weed control of follow-up weed survey and removal for chainsaws and driptorches were working bees in the Furneaux Islands across approximately 120 Hectares of funded out of an equipment grant this year.